After wanting one for over 30 years I finally picked up a drilling and got it from the FFL yesterday. (I'm a lefty, so it took time to find a lefty gun, let alone a decent one.) Anyway, it's a BUHAG proofed 1982 set up 16x16x 8x57R. (Since it's "modern", it's 16/70. Halleleujah!)

The barrel stamp says "8x57 IRS".

Before I order ammo, is this the .323 bullet?

Thanks!

Hi Dave;
I believe yes - 323
Do you have a reliable gunsmith within reasonable driving distance? You might
simply take the the gun to him for a bore check.
Bo

Dave,
The rifle is intended for .323" bullets, the marking and the date of manufacture tell you this. If you don't know much about drillings, it wouldn't hurt anything to follow the advice to carry it to a gunsmith, even though the bullet is clear.
Mike

Thank for the help, folks. I thought, from prior threads on this site, that it was the .323, but I wanted to run it by the experts here, first, to confirm my belief. The bores are fine - better than fine, actually. Genau spiegelblank, in der Tat. My smith is also my FFL, so we went over it in some detail when I picked it up. Just didn't think to slug the bore.
Thanks again!

Congratulations on your purchase, enjoy.

I have a fondness for drillings and enjoy using them a lot. My favorite coyote hunting rig is a 16x16/6.5x58R Sauer.

You will soon be impressed with the efficiency of that cartridge, especially with heavier or premium bullets. Congratulations!

Your gun will be marked with the bullet weight it was sighted for, most likely 13 gram. I've had a few sighted for 15 gram Bullets. I have a modern 20/20/8X57IRS Merkel sighted for 13 gram (200 grain) Bullets, but I got a bargain on 25 boxes of 180 grain Hornady export ammo and re-zeroed for that. Superb caliber. There's nothing wrong with S&B 13 gram ammo.

I got the S&B 196 grain rounds and, after I got my head around the gun, shot 3 shot groups of about 1.5 inches at 100 yards. Best group had two holes intersecting with another an inch away. The scope is phenomenal - 6x and I could see the staples on the target at 100 yards on a sunny day.
I <I>like</I> this gun.

When you refer to your new drilling as a "lefty" gun, are you referring to the stock alone, or does the action lever also operate in the opposite direction?

Because of a problem with the sight in my right eye, I have been forced to switch shoulders, and operating the action lever on my right handed double rifles and drillings is really awkward for me.

It is not a "true" left-handed gun in the sense of the toplever, safety and triggers being the reverse of normal. On my gun, the only left-handed part - and it's an important one - is the placement of the cheekpiece on the right-hand side of the stock, where my left cheek rests on it. The triggers and toplever are as any other drilling based on an A&D action would be. Front trigger - right barrel. Toplever goes to the right. All my doubles are set up that way and that's really all I've ever known, so I don't really have any difficulty with that.
Like most recent German drillings the safety is a Greener-type, mounted in the left cheek of the stock. It's a bit awkward for me.

I find a Greener safety really difficult to operate with gloves, regardless of which side its located on. I'm not at all sure of this, but it may be possible to reverse the safety without too much difficulty.

Could try getting a 'smith to attach a small spur to the
existing safety. Then you could just use your thumb to
release/apply. Have seen two shotguns guns with this and
they did not look ugly.

TaffyAtkins,
As a drilling user since the early 1960s, I don't favor this modification. It makes accidental switching from safe to fire, too easy. If the checkering on the button has worn smooth, then cleaning it up should help.
Mike